Separately, those payments were on top of an additional €1 million ($1.2 million) “gift” from Dassault to an Indian company to create 50 replicas of its Rafale jets, models which Dassault was not able to prove existed after an audit by the French anti-corruption agency (AFA). In their investigations into the routes of those funds, India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) – an anti-money laundering agency – discovered that Gupta also “received kickbacks” with the aim of influencing the outcome of “other defence deals” like Rafale, said Mediapart. Gupta was allegedly paid several million euros in secret commissions to offshore accounts and shell companies by French aeronautical company Dassault Aviation and defence electronics firm Thales, ostensibly to influence the Rafale deal.
Rafale flight scandal series#
The probe has been launched in the wake of a series of investigative reports published by Mediapart in April, which, apart from possible financial crimes, also revealed the role of a middleman named Sushen Gupta, now under investigation in India in connection with another defence deal. In the latest development to surface over France’s controversial 2016 Rafale jet deal with India, an independent probe has been launched to investigate suspected corruption and favouritism surrounding the €7.8 billion ($9.2 billion) purchase.Īn inquiry into the inter-governmental deal for 36 fighter jets was formally opened on June 14 following a decision by France’s public financial prosecutor (PNF), French investigative outlet Mediapart reported last Friday.Īppointed by the PNF, a judge will take aim at the top offices involved in the approval of the deal and question the actions of former French president Francois Hollande, who was in office when the deal was signed current president Emmanuel Macron, who was economy and finance minister at the time and then-defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who is now Macron’s minister for foreign affairs.
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A judicial inquiry has been launched into the 2016 multi-billion-dollar deal between France and India, long shrouded in allegations of corruption, favouritism and involvement from the highest offices in both countries.